Reasons You Should Not Become a Nurse
Have you ever considered nursing as a potential career path? Are there qualities about this field that are slightly off putting and make you feel uneasy? Well today, I’m sharing some reasons you should not become a nurse.
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Nursing • Education • Finance
Ginika E.
Last Updated: November 22, 2023
Have you ever considered nursing as a potential career path? Are there qualities about this field that are
slightly off putting and make you feel uneasy? Well today, I’m sharing some reasons you should not
become a nurse.
You may have many reasons supporting your desire to become a nurse. Nurses love helping people and
enjoy being a part of the recovery process. You might love the same things. However, have you
considered the downsides of this profession?
Of course, there is no perfect career and all jobs come with disadvantages, but before you take this big
leap, here are some reasons to reconsider becoming a nurse.
Relevant Posts:
Reasons You Should Not Become a Nurse
1. High Stress Environment
Working as a nurse is an amazing way to learn about human health, enhance your social skills and
become more efficient at managing your time, but it comes with major challenges.
Nurses perform a series of tasks, communicate with doctors, care for patients experiencing unanticipated
episodes, document pages worth of information, assist patients with changing, eating, ambulating and
ensure that their patients are safe at all times.
This job is no joke and can be physically and emotionally taxing.
In nursing, there are many moving parts. It is often difficult for nurses to wrap their head around
everything that needs to be done and perform tasks in a timely manner.
In some units, nurses provide care to 4-5 patients (sometimes more) and each have distinct needs.
I can recall an experience where a patient was scheduled for a diagnostic test and a string of orders were
to be fulfilled prior to the transport team’s arrival.
Based on her expression and body language, it was evident the nurse was under a lot of pressure to
complete her orders on time.
Medication Administration
Another common point of stress for nurses is medication administration. Nurses must deliver all
medications by a certain time and this becomes more challenging as the number of patients increases.
In nursing homes, RNs are expected to provide medication to at least 40 patients in 3 hours.
That is not much time. The work can be very intense, overwhelming and create burnout.
2. Fear of Blood
Did you know that people experience hemophobia? Yes, it’s a real thing! Hemophobia is defined as the
fear of blood and if you didn’t know, nurses see and handle blood on a regular basis.
Nurses are tasked with conducting blood transfusions, cleaning wounds, collecting blood for cultures,
inserting IV lines, removing and re-applying sterile dressing to surgical sites and more. You will see A LOT
of blood.
In order to be proficient in this profession, you must acquire a level of comfortability with fluids like blood.
However, if hemophobia persists with multiple attempts to overcome it, nursing may not be the profession
for you.
3. Labor Intensive
Ouf! If anyone ever told you nursing is a piece of cake, they were lying. This form of work at times is
mentally draining and physically tiring.
Even though our world has undergone major technological advancements, fields like nursing still involve
manual effort.
All RNs, at one point or another, have been assigned patients that require complete assistance with
cleaning, ambulation and reorienting in bed. If an assistive personnel is not available to aid the patient,
you will have to fulfill these tasks.
Moreover, with intense labor comes injury. It is rather normal for nurses to sustain some level of injury
while at work. Such injuries generally affect the lower back and knees.
RNs at the bedside typically experience strain of the lower back acquired through moving and lifting
patients. Sustaining occupational injuries is one of the most common reasons a nurse leaves the
profession.
Working in the hospital setting requires extensive bending, standing and walking. Partaking in
this physically strenuous job over time will likely impart wear and tear on the body.
4. Long Shifts
You know how shifts normally start at 9 AM and end around 5 PM? Yeah, you won’t always see this in
nursing.
As discussed in a previous post, many RNs work 12 hour shifts 3 times a week and these 12 hour shifts
can cause fatigue. Throughout the shift, nurses are mostly on their feet, administering medication, helping
clients and answering call bells.
Depending on how busy the day is, the shift may go by incredibly slow or super fast. Nurses have days
where the workload seems entirely too overwhelming and impossible to complete in a single shift.
Long shifts amongst other reasons can cause a nurse to experience extreme burnout.
Too add, nurses occasionally experience new admissions towards the end of the shift and this calls for
extensive documentation.
Many times, nurses have shared how they looked forward to going home only to find another patient has
been added. Of course, instances like this can be frustrating, but it is a part of the job.
5. Nursing Shortage
As a result of high nurse to patient ratios, occupational injuries, violent events and intense physical
requirements, several nurses have exited the field. Over the pandemic period, approximately 100,000
nurses left the workforce.
This mass exodus severely impacted healthcare facilities nationwide and left many institutions with far
fewer nurses than ever.
With the massive drop in registered nurses, RNs experience burn out at a faster rate. Nurses do more
work as there are more patients to take care of.
Burn out has become increasingly common amongst healthcare professionals and will affect work
performance and retention rates across many facilities.
So is Nursing for You?
Only you can answer that question! While considering all the reasons you should become a nurse, it is
important to acknowledge the disadvantages of this profession.
I hope this article has given you more insight into what nursing entails and is a helpful resource in guiding your decision!
Of all the reasons you should not become a nurse, which one stands out to you most? Feel free to write a
comment!